University of Georgia Athletics
Quinn Already In Elite Georgia Company
May 26, 2023 | Men's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
That Ethan Quinn has joined some elite Georgia men's tennis company is in no way a surprise. From start to finish this season, from fall tournaments to spring dual matches, the Bulldogs' star redshirt freshman has been among the best players in the country.
Still, nothing comes easy in college tennis, especially not a spot in the finals of the NCAA singles tournament. On Friday afternoon at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla., Quinn, the No. 2 seed, defeated Virginia's Chris Rodesch in the semifinals, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, to advance to Saturday's final against No. 8-seeded Ondrej Styler of Michigan.
Rodesch, a 6-foot-6 big hitter, was the NCAA team tournament MVP after leading the Cavaliers to their second straight national championship. On Friday, Rodesch, a 9-16 seed, got off to a fast start and quickly took the opening set. Quinn answered back in the second, and then in the deciding set, Quinn broke Rodesch's serve at 3-3 to take command of the match.
Quinn was a top junior player in the country, had great success in lower-level pro tournaments last summer, and has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the ITA rankings during the season. So did he expect to make a deep run in the NCAA singles?
"I think if you had asked me that question in January, I'd have said that yes, I expected to be in the semis of NCAAs," the SEC Freshman of the Year and ITA All-American said in a phone interview after his semifinal win Thursday. "But, honestly, once the draw came out, it was very easy to say that I definitely knew it would be tough. Expecting me to to make the semis, I couldn't say that. ...
"To say I expected to be in the semis, probably no. Would I have wanted to be? Absolutely."
And on Friday, he got one step closer to the championship.
By advancing to the NCAA singles final, Quinn has joined a distinguished group of Bulldogs that have played for a national championship. His appearance in the final will be the ninth in program history, and the first since John Isner played for the title in 2007.
Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz has been with the program for every deep run in the NCAA team, singles and doubles tournaments. He was Dan Magill's assistant coach when the Bulldogs won the program's first team title in 1985 and the second in 1987. He was there when Mikael Pernfors won back-to-back singles titles in 1984-85, beating teammate George Bezecny in the 1985 final.
In 1988, Al Parker became the first Georgia freshman to reach the semis of the NCAA singles. Quinn is the second.
"Just joining those elite names, knowing that I'm just the second freshman to reach the semis, with Al Parker, it's pretty amazing," Quinn said. "I remember from my recruiting visit, seeing the wall of All-Americans, and I wanted to be one of those guys."
Diaz took over as head coach after the 1988 season, and in the spring of 1989, Stephen Enochs and Francisco Montana reached the semis of the NCAAs. In 1991, Patricio Arnold reached the singles final, followed by Wade McGuire reaching the final in 1992 and '93. In 1998, John Roddick advanced to the semis.
In 2001, Matias Boeker completed the ultimate prize in collegiate tennis, leading the Bulldogs to the team title, winning the singles and then winning the doubles with partner Travis Parrot. Boeker won the singles title again in 2002.
In 2007, Isner led the Bulldogs to an undefeated season and Diaz's third NCAA team title (Georgia won it again in 2008), and then in the legendary Bulldog's final collegiate match, Isner fell in the singles final, losing 7-6 in the third set, to Virginia's Somdev Devvarman.
"I think more than anything, it's just the mental strength that all these guys that did well in the singles tournament have," Diaz said. "It's been a long season; it's not just the NCAA tournament, they've been going since early January. It's a long, long season, but their ability to take a step back (after the team tournament) and reset and make it all the way here, it's drive, it's the ability to stay focused and the ability to demand excellence from yourself.
"Ethan's very motivated, very driven and very disciplined, so he's having great success."
Quinn is chasing a singles title 40 years after Georgia won its first NCAA championship of any kind. Back in 1983, the great doubles team of Allen Miller and Ola Malmqvist plowed its way through a very tough field to win the program's first national championship.
Miller and Malmqvist fell in the NCAA final the year before, but in 1983 they won it all, beating the SIU-Edwardsville team of Ken Flach and Robert Seguso, who would go on to become one of the top tandems in the world, winning multiple Wimbledon titles and Olympic gold in 1988.
Quinn already has one collegiate national title to his name, Back in October, at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., Quinn defeated teammate Philip Henning to win his first collegiate title. Once dual-match play began in January, Quinn had some ups and downs, twice losing three matches in a row. He's been red-hot ever since.
"He's so conscientious," Diaz said, "I think he didn't want to let his teammates down, so he was playing a little tense, a little tight, and it wasn't until late February or early March that he was able to compartmentalize and put that aside, and stop thinking so much. ... It was at that point that he started taking off."
Friday's win was Quinn's 16th in a row. He'll go for No. 17 on Saturday, with a national championship on the line.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
